Ron Paul is not out of the game (Nor has he conceded, quit, given up, not going to campaign, throwing in the towel, etc.), The endless costly wars (Iraq, Afghanistan):
Ron Paul is not out of the game:
So the web is buzzing about a report on the Drudge claiming that Ron Paul was officially giving up his campaign and simply wanted a speaking slot at the convention. I want to make everyone feel confident both here and outside of the country that this is simply not the case. Here is a full text copy of Ron Paul’s message below:
As I reflect on our 2012 Presidential campaign, I am humbled by the supporters who have worked so hard and sacrificed so much. And I am so proud of what we have accomplished. We will not stop until we have restored what once made America the greatest country in human history.
This campaign fought hard and won electoral success that the talking heads and pundits never thought possible. But, this campaign is also about more than just the 2012 election. It has been part of a quest I began 40 years ago and that so many have joined. It is about the campaign for Liberty, which has taken a tremendous leap forward in this election and will continue to grow stronger in the future until we finally win.
Our campaign will continue to work in the state convention process. We will continue to take leadership positions, win delegates, and carry a strong message to the Republican National Convention that Liberty is the way of the future.
Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted. Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have. I encourage all supporters of Liberty to make sure you get to the polls and make your voices heard, particularly in the local, state, and Congressional elections, where so many defenders of Freedom are fighting and need your support.
I hope all supporters of Liberty will remain deeply involved – become delegates, win office, and take leadership positions. I will be right there with you. In the coming days, my campaign leadership will lay out to you our delegate strategy and what you can do to help, so please stay tuned.
For Liberty,
Ron Paul
While like everyone I didn’t find this message exciting first you basically need to understand what Ron Paul is saying and where he is going with this. More or less he is doing the same thing the Paul campaign did in Florida. If you have no idea what I am talking about then a short recap is this. A few months back when the primary for Florida was coming up Ron Paul and his campaign made it clear that the official Ron Paul camp would not be spending money to campaign in the state or have an official presence there. Rather they would rely on grassroots supporters to turn out to vote and win delegate positions for them. The reason being that the state being a winner take all state along with being very expensive to advertise in just wouldn’t make it worthwhile to be spending limited funds there. More or less the same applies here.
With less eleven states remaining the voting process is winding down and now states are holding there delegate voting and this is where one wins. Because just as I have explained before the idea is to win delegates to win the nomination. So basically in short the campaign plans to focus their money and resources on states where the delegate voting process are happening right now to win as many delegates as possible. This late into the voting process they figure it’s better to ride momentum and rely on massive grassroots support to win votes in the remaining states while the campaign spends their time and money on states where delegates are getting selected right now.
Ron Paul is in it to win but even if he doesn’t win he plans to win as many delegates as possible and get people who want freedom in important positions. As you will notice in this message he simply clarifies that they will not spend money in the upcoming states. He still makes it clear however that they need people to vote in these states and get involved and that his campaign will be releasing their strategy to win even more delegates soon. So in short this race is far from over. Yes, the odds are against us as far as big money goes but we’re making a lot of head way.
The reason for the new focus is because a majority of states are still going through the process of electing delegates. The way it works is once the popular vote is done the delegate process happens next which literally takes months to complete. There are currently over one thousand delegates which have yet to be won for one side or the other. Latest estimates I have seen expect Mitt Romney to win a majority of delegates in about 18 states (possibly less though) and Ron Paul has won the majority of delegates in at least 11 states with more to come.
Recently it was confirmed that Ron Paul has (or pretty much will) win a majority of delegates in Iowa, Alaska, Minnesota, Louisiana and even a possible majority of delegates in Arizona. The reason is because most states are holding local elections right now for delegate slots and Ron Paul is doing extremely well in almost every single one. This is the exact reason why the Ron Paul campaign wishes to focus on the states which are holding such contests to win as many of the one thousand plus delegates as possible.
By doing so they can then focus on winning as many delegates as possible in the states which have upcoming primaries such as California and Texas. With it coming up that delegates may not be fully bound for all states and delegates being the key to winning the nomination this is why we must focus on the delegate strategy. Overall this might work in our favor since everyone believes Ron Paul is giving up which will make it easier to win local delegate positions for Ron Paul. So no, he has not dropped out, given up, or thrown in the towel.
They simply will not be running ads in anymore states but will focus money and resources on winning delegates. So if you live in any up coming primary especially Texas or California get out in vote, take your friends and fill out the voter affidavit forms and remember that we’re still in this.
Something to keep in mind is that to get a more accurate idea of delegates check out a site like this: http://thereal2012delegatecount.com/
The reason why the delegate count is so low on this (though I think it might be slightly out of date) is because it keeps it accurate in that most states have not finished in the delegate selection process yet. A lot of states have multiple levels of voting before delegate counts are finalized. But in many states such as Iowa Ron Paul supporters have dominated the first level of voting which more or less guarantees winning a majority of delegates in the next levels of voting until delegates are finalized. And this is why we stand a real chance at winning large number of delegates and winning at the convention.
http://www.dailypaul.com/231888/ron-paul-has-won-11-states-video
The endless costly wars (Iraq, Afghanistan):
Here is an idea for the current cost of the ongoing wars in the Middle East: http://costofwar.com/en/
Current expenses have topped one trillion and are expected to surpass 3.7 trillion or more when all expenses are done, all debts paid, all costs finally done. This is not just for the wars but costs which will come after the wars are done too (whenever that day comes). As America goes through the longest wars in history since the Vietnam War I think it’s clear that we’re all tired of this. I remember back when 9/11 happened and how everyone was all about patriotism and support the troops. What was most sad was how people were pouring out wine and renaming French fries to freedom fries because France did not wish to support the wars in the Middle East. I remember back when 9/11 first happened and how people were all about being patriotic and very gung ho. Sadly the need for revenge blinded a lot of people to being practical. Ron Paul had the right idea in pointing out that he voted for authorization to go in after Osama Bin Laden but voted against additional funds to keeping troops there. We have poured more money in the form of foreign aid into Iraq and Afghanistan then any other two countries in the world as far as foreign aid goes. Despite this both countries are in terrible shape. The number of people suffering from birth defects has skyrocketed since the American invasion of Iraq and the infrastructure as far as electrical, water, etc is in terrible condition being barley able to meet the daily needs of people for basic uses. Medical facilities have very poor conditions as well. Afghanistan faces similar problems with an infrastructure in poor shape, ongoing attacks from rebels and a weak government. The problem here is that while I agree Bin Laden was a bad mine and I was fine with taking him out the need to plan ourselves in these countries to fight terrorism was a foolish idea at best. The reason being that invading a country and settling down for years to try and drive out terrorists is bound to not work. Especially when they will simply move to new areas. The Soviet Union bankrupted themselves in attempting to control the Middle East and now we’re doing the same thing. While I know I’ve talked to people who feel that people in Iraq and Afghanistan there are a lot of things that show otherwise. Aside from all of the problems they deal with I think logic dictates that our presence there is bound to offend some people especially when their friends and family are killed in the crossfire. Surveys done have shown that many locals see NATO forces as an occupying force in their country and a very in depth study recently showed a connection between civilians deaths by American/NATO forces followed by increases in violence. However good intention we might have been these wars are achieving little for everyone. Innocent civilians die, American soldiers die and large sums of money are spent. Money which we can no longer afford. While I know people want to protect us and support our troops it’s time to realize that this endless spending and these endless wars do not make us anymore safe. If anything it makes us less safe by bringing up anti-american feelings and making it more easy to recruit people who dislike America. The money we’ll have to pay doesn’t even include our many other wars such as CIA drone bombing in places such as Yemen, Pakistan or our war on drugs. It’s time that we rethink our foreign policy and how we can be friends with people. Even now when the troops have supposedly left Iraq we still have a massive base there full of ten thousand private contractors who cost several times more then regular military forces do.
http://1humanity.blogspot.com/2010/08/fallujah.html
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/07/28/power-and-light.html
http://articles.boston.com/2012-02-08/world/31034502_1_embassy-kuwait-iraqis
I think the wars should have been ended a long time ago, before it progressed to such devastation.